Information for:

News Center

Smashing A Ceiling And A Lot Of Egos

Professor William Gould weighs in on the success (and lack thereof) of negotiation attempts by the NBA player's union for The New York Times.

Last month, inside a grand ballroom at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Michele A. Roberts stood before 117 N.B.A. players — towering international celebrities with millions in their bank accounts — and declared that she should be their leader.

Roberts confidently ran through her credentials — law school at the University of California, Berkeley; a sparkling trial career; partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, one of Washington’s most prestigious law firms — and then addressed the many problems facing the players union that she hoped to lead as executive director.

...

“They lost on all the economic issues, and the best you can say is they held on to fight another day,” said William B. Gould IV, a labor expert at Stanford Law School.

Referring to Roberts, he added, “She’s going to have to prove herself to the players.”